Ultimate Strength of Damaged Tubular Bracing Members

Abstract

Simple design‐oriented analytical expressions are developed to estimate the reserve‐load carrying capacity of circular tubular beam‐column members with overall bending and local denting damage. The analysis is based on a member with a reduced effective section to account for the effects of such damage. Comparisons show the method to provide close lower bound predictions of available theoretical and experimental results. Finally, the mechanics of damage are examined in a detailed parametric study, the results of which can be useful in direct design applications.